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GSA Hosts Courthouse Design Forum

Washington, DC – Today the U.S. General Services Administration hosted a national conversation on federal courthouse design under the GSA’s award-winning Design Excellence Program. This day-long event included a keynote address from Justice Stephen Breyer, who received special recognition for his passionate advocacy of architecture as a public art relevant to the administration of justice.

“With the federal judiciary being our largest customer, the Design Excellence Program is vital to create appropriate and inspiring federal courthouses in the 21st century that will best meet the needs of the federal judiciary and the American people,” said David Winstead, GSA’s Commissioner for the Public Buildings Service.

The forum included an assessment of the GSA’s courthouse portfolio by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Robert Campbell, a discussion about the courthouse architecture of our time by Judge Michael Hogan, U.S. District Court for the district of Oregon, and GSA Architecture Fellow Thomas Gordon Smith, as well as panelists discussing the qualities and process for successful courthouses and their costs. These conversations will help foster high performance, state-of-the-art buildings through the Design Excellence Program. GSA buildings are designed to be models of environmental stewardship as well as dignified landmarks in their community.

GSA’s Design Excellence Program, now in its second decade, continues to create public buildings that enhance cities and towns, inspire the public, and communicate America’s democratic values. Its influence has reached other public agencies and the private sector.

Founded in 1949, GSA serves as a centralized procurement and property management agency for the federal government. GSA manages more than one-fourth of the government’s total procurement dollars and influences the management of $500 billion in federal assets, including 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 205,000 vehicles. GSA helps preserve our past and define our future, as a steward of more than 425 historic properties, and as manager of USA.gov, the official portal to federal government information and services. GSA’s mission to provide superior workplaces, expert technology solutions, acquisition services, purchasing and eGov travel solutions and management policies, at best value, allows federal agencies to focus on their core missions.

Did You Know? That GSA’s Design Excellence Program is based on the “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture” established 45 years ago by President John F. Kennedy.